


Animal Attraction

by takethembystorm



Series: Tea Break [26]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, kinda ladynoir-ish if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 15:45:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8108194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takethembystorm/pseuds/takethembystorm
Summary: Marinette has a cat problem.  A rather big one.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://canvasconstellations.tumblr.com/post/143944171080).

“Mrow!”

“Another one?” Sabine sighs. She holds up a cat by the scruff of its neck, its fur a glossy midnight black. The cat blinks big, innocent green eyes at her.

“You locked your skylight?” Sabine says.

Well, she’d unlatched it to go on patrol, but she’d weighed it down with a fairly big potted plant, and it hadn’t looked as though it’d moved when she’d gotten back. “Yes, Mama.”

“And your windows?”

“Yes, Mama.”

“Probably came in through the delivery door while your father wasn’t looking, then,” Sabine says. She sets the cat down on the kitchen table. It immediately turns, bats lightly at Sabine’s hand with a paw, hops to the floor with a quiet _thmp_ , pads over to Marinette, and starts butting its head against her ankles. “I’ll call the shelter. Make sure that it doesn’t get into anything.”

“Rrow!” The cat coils itself around her ankle, sinks claws into the fabric of her sweatpants, and apparently goes to sleep. Marinette tries to discreetly shake it off; when that fails, she hobbles over to the couch, her living shackle a warm weight on her foot.

The cat starts purring.

* * *

When exactly had this started happening? She honestly can’t recall. One morning she’d been woken up by Tikki’s muffled screaming and there’d been a large black tomcat sleeping comfortably on her stomach. It’d been using Tikki as a stomach cushion.

A minute’s flailing and attempting to get the cat to unhook its claws from her sleep shirt had merely resulted in her falling off of her bed and then nearly breaking her neck when she’d fallen down her stairs. _That_ had woken her parents, who’d tried to pull the cat off by main force. That hadn’t worked. Eventually they’d just let the cat have the shirt.

The next morning she’d woken up with another cat, this one green-eyed like a freshly-mowed lawn and black-furred like velvet, curled up around her neck.

She’d started locking her windows on the sixth consecutive day, when she’d woken up to a lack of cat but a frantic mewling and a scrabbling noise. A moment’s investigation had revealed the source to be a kitten, its fur a deep sable and its eyes a vibrant malachite green, hanging on with claws sunk into the wall just under her windowsill. The skylight had followed suit some time after, when she’d been woken at three in the morning by a cat falling onto her face.

It had been at the point that her parents had given up trying to explain what was going on and had relegated themselves to damage control.

Marinette had more resources to call upon, fortunately.

* * *

“I have no idea what’s going on, Marinette,” Tikki says. The kwami shrugs helplessly as Marinette groans and flops flat on her bed. The movement jostles the black cat resting on her lap; it mewls once before settling back down. Marinette’s hand moves automatically to stroke down the line of its back and it starts purring in response.

“Do you at least know if it’s Chat’s fault?” Marinette says. She gestures idly at the cat, which grabs her hand and drags it down until she starts stroking its fur again. “They’ve all had his coloration, after all. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Probably not,” Tikki agrees, a bit hesitantly.

* * *

“Are you sending these cats after me?” Ladybug demands later that day.

Chat blinks at her and lowers his offered fist. “Pardon?”

“I keep waking up to cats,” she says, a mite irritably. “Black-furred, green-eyed ones.”

“Is that a _proposition_ , my La—“

“Knock it off,” she says. “I’m serious. They’re starting to become a nuisance. They keep showing up at my house, clawing at my windows, about the only thing they haven’t done is show up at school.”

“It could mean that we’re _soulmates_ ,” Chat says with a dreamy air. He gets an unfriendly shove in the ribs. “All right, all right,” he says. “It’s not me. My word of honor.”

He glances at her sour expression and chews thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek. “I guess it isn’t you sending all of those ladybugs my way, then?” he says. “They’ve been hanging out in the ventilation ducts in my room.”

“You’re joking,” she says.

“My _Lady_ ,” Chat says with offended hauteur. “I’m telling you the truth, of course.”

She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Well, it’s not me,” she says.

Chat reaches out and places his hands on her shoulders. “We’re in this together, at least.”

Ladybug lifts a hand and rests it gently on one of his arms; he releases her and shifts his weight onto his heels. She smiles wanly at him.

“That we are,” she says, and raises a fist to him as her earring beeps.

* * *

The cat follows her all the way into school.

The cat follows her from class to class, mewling at her through the windows.

The damn cat hops into her lap the instant she sits to eat her lunch, and paws at her until she gives the blasted thing some of the meat from her sandwich.

“I thought you were joking about that whole cat problem,” Alya says. The cat accepts a few pats on the head from her before it nuzzles into Marinette’s thigh, purring.

“Nope,” Marinette says.

“Aw, hi kitty!” someone says with high-pitched excitement.

“Hey, Adrien,” Alya says.

“Can I pet him?” Adrien says as Marinette freezes.

“S-Sure!” she squeaks. “Go right ahead. It’s not like the cat’s _mine_ , per say, it just showed up all of a sudden and, and it’s been happening for a little bit and I have no idea where they’re coming from and—“ She trails off as Adrien chuckles.

“Friend of mine’s having the same problem,” he says as the cat arches into his touch.

“O-Oh, really?” Marinette manages to answer.

A ladybug flits by, circles her head once, and lands squarely on his shoulder. Adrien reaches over with his free hand, lets the insect climb onto a finger, and shows it to the cat, who blinks curiously and touches its nose to it.

“They’ve been showing up around my house,” he explains to Marinette and Alya. “Whole colony living in my vents. I just seem to attract them, I guess.”

Marinette blinks at him. She blinks at the ladybug. She blinks at his suddenly concerned expression.

Then she screams.


End file.
